"It is truly a multi-disciplinary effort to make the hospital safer for our patients, their families and our staff." Leonard Mermel, D.O., medical director of the department of epidemiology and infection control at Rhode Island Hospital said in the announcement.

Mermel noted hospital-acquired C. diff not only presents enormous risks to patients, but also excess costs to hospitals. In fact, the yearly national excess hospital cost associated with hospital-onset C. diff exceeds $1.3 billion nationwide, according to Lifespan's research announcement.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found about 82 percent of C. diff cases in healthy people occurred after visiting healthcare settings, according to research published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.

After interviewing 984 infected people in eight states from 2009 through mid-2011, researchers found most people reported visiting doctors' or dentists' offices or having been in a hospital for less than a day. The researchers said study participants could have been exposed via direct contact with contaminated surfaces or from healthcare providers prescribing antibiotics that weaken the body's defense against C. diff bacteria.

FEATURED ADVISOR

David Musyj is the president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital. Based in Ontario, Canada, the hospital has won numerous awards under his leadership, including the Leading Practice Award, for reducing its MRI wait times, and the People's Choice Innovation award – both from the Ontario Hospital Association. Musyj is also a contributing blogger for Hospital Impact.